MP calls for toxic rot cleanup guidelines

Homeowners and workers cleaning up rot and mould in "leaky buildings" need to be given guidelines on how to do it safely, says Green Party MP Sue Kedgley.

Some guidelines have been drawn up by the Labour Department's Occupational Safety and Health arm, but they needed to be broadened and widely disseminated, she said yesterday.

"All builders and homeowners must be urgently informed of the proper guidelines for the identification and removal of stachybotrys and other toxic moulds, and they should be required to use them."

The guidelines should require workers removing the mould to wear protective clothing, gloves and masks, and be properly trained.

A former Hortresearch scientist, microbiologist Nick Waipara, of Lincoln, said he had found stachybotrys fungi in 170 homes, and in some cases people in those homes had reported illnesses.

Samples taken from 10 of 43 homes where people reported illnesses were tested for fungal toxins. Residents' symptoms included rashes, tiredness, headaches, allergic reactions, breathing trouble and chest infections.

Dr Waipara's survey is claimed to be the first solid link in New Zealand between toxic moulds and human illness.

A report on the health implications of toxic rot is being prepared for the Ministry of Health, and data from the New Zealand study is to be included in research in the United States, Germany and Denmark.

A big United States organisation of 6000 occupational health doctors has disputed the theory that stachybotrys was a "killer mould".

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine said "current scientific evidence does not support the proposition that human health has been adversely affected by inhaled mycotoxins in the home, school or office environment". But Ms Kedgley said she believed the Government should fund further investigation of the mould in New Zealand because other research suggested that mycotoxins were a health hazard.

The American report said a growing body of research linked a range of respiratory illnesses such as asthma with residence in damp homes, but recent studies showed dust mites and bacteria thriving in the damp conditions were more likely triggers than mould spores.

- NZPA

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Herald feature: Health

Herald feature: Leaky buildings

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